Marmot activity in Sequoia and Kings Canyon Nat'l parks

[S. Heisley]

When I saw this picture on Facebook, I got curious....It seems the marmots have been chewing into hoses on cars.

Planning a trip to Mineral King? Marmots are very active there this summer, and you'll want to protect your vehicle's hoses and wiring from being chewed by these large rodents. The best defense is to use a large tarp and rope. When you park, drive over the tarp and then tie it over the top of the car. Circling you car with chicken wire is also an option, but may not be as secure. And in case you're wondering, this protection is only needed in the Mineral King area, not in other areas of the parks.

Maybe, since it has been so dry the last few years, they are looking for the hoses that contain water...dunno.

I found the comments, below, at this site: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_R ... ornia.html

“Beware the Lowly Marmot!”
4 of 5 starsReviewed June 29, 2014
The drive in to Mineral King is great - for the passengers! For the driver, it's a constant challenge... Narrow, winding road with steep hills, parts not paved, little signage. Nothing too out of he ordinary for the region, and our little Mitsubishi Mirage rental seemed to survive the trip.

When you get to the ranger station at the end of the road, you may notice signs warning that the local marmot population likes to chew on cars. Believe it! We were tempted to ignore them, until we saw marmots under the first three parked cars we saw! Apparently the recommended defense is a large tarp wrapped around and under the car.

I'm told the marmots quit chewing on cars sometime in July or August.

Visited June 2014

[tony.latham]

I've known them to eat up wiring.... Not a good thing.

T

[Midget]

We live just outside Kings Canyon and make many weekend trips into the park for the weekend. This is the first I've heard of this. Mineral King is way in the back of the park though. Very remote. We usually stay closer to populated areas. It does sound like they are looking for water as it has been very dry the past few years. We've seen a lot of wildlife at our house in the sierra foothills that we haven't seen before. Last fall we lost a crop of Petite Sirah grapes due to raccoons. Raccoons aren't normally seen in our area so it was a surprise.

The plastic tarp may look a little funny but if you don't want those little guys chewing on your car, you have to do something.

Bob

[MtnDon]

Marmots have been eating various rubber parts on vehicles for decades. Most places don't have this degree of a problem but we first ran into a marmot chew issue about 30 years ago in CO.

[S. Heisley]

I guess there's another reason to pack a large tarp, besides rain and shade.

[capnTelescope]

Years ago I was driving into that area from the east side, and I kept hearing these animal calls. Curiosity finally got me, and I pulled off to take a look over the side. Marmots, of course. Several of them. Cute little fellas.

[Fred Trout]

Cute ? I suppose - they also carry bubonic plague which is endemic in western US so worse things than your car-damage can happen.


http://www.cdc.gov/plague/transmission/index.html

[capnTelescope]

they also carry bubonic plague

Nothing cute about that.

But they're small and furry and you don't see them in the big city.

Referring to your map, what's up with AZ & NM? Do they have that many marmots, or just other rodents? Hanta virus, too. Ewww!

[Fred Trout]

Referring to your map, what's up with AZ & NM? Do they have that many marmots, or just other rodents? Hanta virus, too. Ewww!

The original primary source of infection in Asia is a likely a marmot species, also more abundant in drier climactic areas but a variety of rodents are known to be carriers like rats but rats are just a sideshow and apparently are not endemic carriers. I doubt anybody has any good explanation on why the infection rates are highest in Southern Colorado, NE AZ & N NM but that's what the data show. Likely just where the most people live in close proximity to where the infected rodent carriers are most abundant. That's typically how these zoonotic (animal to human) diseases work; check out Lyme Disease maps, for instance:

pic:


..
Usually you have a particular set of weather conditions (or lack of deer predators) that promote a population boom in the host, an explosion of local disease transmission, then a pandemic that infects a wider variety of species like rats and humans.

BTW, we still periodically use DDT to control the flea vectors of plague in the US because it is especially effective, persistent, and sequestered in the burrows; it has always been available for control of insect disease vectors.

[capnTelescope]

Some tv documentary I saw about the great plague in Europe claimed it was the flea's fault. The fleas would get infected, the germ would clog up their upper digestive tract so they couldn't swallow, they got really hungry and bit anything they could, thus spreading the plague. At least the plague would have killed the fleas, too.

[Fred Trout]

Yes, fleas are the insect vector but the disease comes from the marmot / rodent they feed on. You can get the plague by handing the marmot directly or if the bacterial type is pulmonary, breathing the air they exhale. Which is why you want to kill all rodents around or in your house. They carry a whole grocery cart of diseases & parasites that can be transmitted to humans.

The fleas bite whatever they encounter and we are a target of opportunity. The marmots die, the fleas bail and go to any host they can feed on, dog, cat, rat, rabbit, etc who often die so the fleas bail off and find another host, etc. From Wikipedia: "The bacteria are harmless to the flea, allowing the new host to spread the bacteria. The bacteria form aggregates in the gut of infected fleas and this results in the flea regurgitating ingested blood, which is now infected, into the bite site of a rodent or human host. " But this regurgitation while feeding is common in all kinds of insects and has nothing to do with "bacterial aggregates". It's possible but I would have to check the primarily literature and I am too lazy. Does not matter anyway since we get infected and now you know enough to be dangerous

[capnTelescope]

Ewwww! And I just finished dinner.

[CCrew]

Cute ? I suppose - they also carry bubonic plague which is endemic in western US so worse things than your car-damage can happen.

1-17 cases in the US per year. More likely to get hit by lightning. The plague thing is a bit tinfoil hat don't ya think?

[rebapuck]

A lot of those dots are in the Grand Canyon area and outward? Lots of stupid tourists doing really stupid things.

[Fred Trout]

A lot of those dots are in the Grand Canyon area and outward? Lots of stupid tourists doing really stupid things.

Plague usually happens when people live alongside the rodent burrows. The rodent dies, the fleas go on the hunt for food, humans or pets get bit. Infection results. These are pretty low probability events since there are only a handful of cases per year. Untreated mortality is high, but with antibiotics 11% mortality, so not a trivial disease nonetheless.

"In recent decades, an average of 7 human plague cases are reported each year (range: 1-17 cases per year)." http://www.cdc.gov/plague/faq/#how